France's Hollande's signs gay marriage law

PARIS, May 18 (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollandehas signed into law a bill allowing same-sex marriage, makingFrance the 14th country to legalise gay weddings.

France's official journal announced on Saturday the bill hadbecome law after the Constitutional Council gave it the go-aheadon Friday.

The bill, a campaign pledge by the Socialist president, hasbeen for months hotly contested by many conservatives in France,where allowing gay marriage is one of the biggest social reformssince abolition of the death penalty in 1981.

Opponents have staged huge and often violent demonstrationsagainst the bill and have called yet another protest on May 26.The leader of opposition to gay marriage, a political activistand humorist who goes under the name of Frigide Barjot, has saidthe protest would draw millions into the streets.

Montpellier mayor Helene Mandroux, who is due to celebrateFrance's first gay marriage in the southern city on May 29, saidthe law marked a major social advance.

"Love has won out over hate," she said, while voicingconcerns the first gay wedding could attract violent protests.

Unlike former president Francois Mitterrand's abolition ofthe death penalty, which most French people opposed at the time,polls showed more than half the country backed gay marriage.

Nonetheless, with Hollande's popularity ratings at recordlows a year into office, the law has proved costly for thepresident with critics saying it has distracted his attentionfrom reviving the recession-hit economy.

After lawmakers adopted the bill in late April, opponentshad sought to scupper it with a last-ditch appeal to theConstitutional Council.